In the desktop computing environment, the use of email is ubiquitous. Almost every single computer user has at least one email address, which is accessed through an email client. The email client has a graphical user interface which shows received emails in an inbox. An individual inbox can receive lots of emails and, in this case, it is difficult for the individual to hold the status of each email in mind, especially when there is a high volume and there are other interruptions (such as in a busy office or at home); people returning to emails after a period of time away from them; or various people all using one shared inbox.
People can lose track of the status of certain emails and may have to seek ways of keeping a record of what they have done regarding particular emails, which may require writing down on a separate note, adding text to the email itself and then resending/saving, or orally updating others in a shared inbox, none of which are the most effective way to directly manage and easily keep a clear status of the email.
Currently, users of email clients can flag and categorize emails in the inbox as important, read/unread, or file them away. Alternative electronic methods of keeping track of work, which has already been done on a given email, include: maintaining a separate text file somewhere on the computer's file system, containing notes about progress made; and using separate annotation software to keep notes. However, all of these methods involve keeping notes outside of the email client, which makes it difficult to link different notes to different emails and deal with each individual email directly. The “follow up” feature in some email applications allows for an email to be returned to the user for future handling, with the facility to add one action only per email, and only one email per action is allowed. The format of the actions is restricted, so actions cannot be linked with other follow-up items or resources. There is no workflow management in the follow up feature beyond that of marking one email for one action with a date. The follow-up feature also can only be used to associate an action with an entire email, not with sections of the email text.